The Seven Eyes of Sauron
by OneSizeFitsAll
Summary: An innocent dinner party becomes the launching of an epic mission, when Gandalf uncovers Aragorn's deep, dark secret. The former Fellowship of the Ring, short one member, becomes a criminal organization, intent on stealing from some of the most influential people in Middle Earth. Rated T for mild violence.
1. Chapter 1: The Council of Gandalf

**The Council of Gandalf**

It had been exactly six months since the ring had been destroyed. In honour of the momentous occasion, Aragorn had invited the whole fellowship, as well as most of his other friends, to Minas Tirith. They were all sitting around the table now, waiting for dinner...all except Aragorn.

The servants said he was still in his tower and that dinner could not be served without him. Arwen had sent one of the servants to fetch him, but the servant had returned, saying the King would neither let him in nor answer him.

The guests and their hostess, two hours after the dinner bell had rung, were very hungry. Pippin was sneaking oranges from the centrepiece. Merry was puffing on his pipe anxiously, trying not to look as miserable as he felt. Sam was surreptitiously eating crumbs off the table cloth. Frodo was groaning quietly, and Gimli was grumbling not so quietly. Legolas was devouring the lembas bread that was left over from his journey. Most of the other guests, including Faramir and Eowyn, Lord Celeborn, Prince Imrahil, and many others, were staring blankly at each other. Gandalf was muttering into his beard.

Finally, Pippin could stand it no longer. He ate the last piece of his fourth orange (the centrepiece had shrunk considerably since he had sat down) and said, "I'm hungry."

Gandalf rose to his feet. "Where is that fool of a Dunedain?" he said. "I'll get him down here or my name isn't Gandalf the Grey!"

He stomped off, leaving the rest of the party staring after him.

"It isn't," said Merry.

"He didn't say Took," said Pippin.

* * *

Gandalf hammered on the locked door of the tower.

"Aragorn!" he shouted. "Let me in, or I'll turn you into a spotted toad!"

"No!" said a voice from inside. "Go away Gandalf! I'm busy!"

"Busy doing what?"

"That's none of your business!"

"Aragorn!"

"No!"

The negative was followed by a noise not unlike an orc's scream from within.

"Aw, man!" said Aragorn. "Dude! You made me die!"

"What? You died?" asked Gandalf. Then he realized that this was impossible. "What on Middle Earth are you doing in there?" he thundered.

"I'm playing a game, now go away!"

"A game? What kind of a game? Who are you playing with?"

There was no answer, except for another orc scream. Gandalf decided there was only one way to solve this mystery. He put his shoulder to the door.

* * *

Aragorn was playing a first-person-slasher game on his Palantir, the one the fellowship had stolen from Saruman. It was a cool game...he got to be an orc and slay elves and dwarfs. And wizards. Aragorn particularly felt like slaying wizards right now. He was battling a wizard when the door burst open and Gandalf marched in and collared him.

"Eeek!" screamed Aragorn.

"Eeeeeek!" screamed the orc he had been playing in the game. The wizard in the game knocked it down with his staff and it died.

"What are you doing?" said Gandalf, wiggling his eyebrows threateningly. "Don't you know you have guests down there waiting for their dinners?" His eye fell on the Palantir. "And don't you know you should never look in the Palantir? Is that what you've been doing all this time? I'm going to have to confiscate it!"

"No!" screamed Aragorn.

"Yes!" said Gandalf.

"No! It's mine! I love it!" Aragorn slipped out of his grasp, caught up the Palantir, and ran to the other end of the room.

"Aragorn!"

"No!"

"You must give it to me!"

"I will not!"

Gandalf took a threatening step forward.

"Nooooooo!" cried Aragorn.

* * *

The door to the dining room entered once more, and Gandalf strode in...alone.

"I told you his name wasn't 'the Grey'," whispered Merry.

"Go ahead and serve dinner," Gandalf told the servants.

"We cannot serve dinner until..."

"Serve dinner before I turn you into a spotted toad!" roared Gandalf.

The servants hurriedly did. A few minutes later, all the guests were happily devouring a large meal. No one even seemed to notice that Aragorn wasn't there.

After supper, however, Gandalf pulled the most important guests...as well as a few of the less important...into a side room and shut the door.

The chosen guests looked at each other blankly as the Wizard went off to find Pippin, whom he said he wanted for something, and who happened to still be eating.

Gandalf had selected Frodo, Sam, Merry, Gimli, Legolas, Gamling, Faramir, Lord Celeborn, Prince Imrahil, Lindir, and Pippin, as already mentioned. When he came back with the last, the others turned towards him expectantly, curiousity written on their faces.

"What's up?" asked Pippin, first to speak as always.

"First, I have questions to ask," said Gandalf grimly. "Lindir, why did Lord Elrond not come to the feast?"

"He said he could not face another good-bye with Arwen," said Lindir, awkwardly.

Everybody gaped. Everybody but Gandalf. They knew this had to be baloney...everybody knew Elrond had been only to too glad to get Arwen off his hands...he had tried for years to get her to go to Valinor before she had married Aragorn. More likely, he couldn't face another hello.

Gandalf turned to Celeborn. Everybody, including Celeborn himself, had been surprised when Gandalf had asked him to come to this strange meeting. He usually got left out of that sort of thing. "And what about your wife?" he asked.

"She said she was busy."

"And your father, Legolas?"

"The same."

"And where is King Eomer, Gamling?"

"He said he had important business to tend to."

Gandalf sighed. "I fear," he said, sitting down wearily, "that a great evil is at work in the world."

"Again?" asked Merry.

Gandalf fixed him with a look.

"When the ring was destroyed, Sauron was not entirely destroyed. He lives on, but he can never again take shape and I believed he had lost all his power. But it seems I was wrong."

"What?" screamed Frodo, jumping up. "Again? You thought that he had lost his power when Isildur defeated him. You thought the same thing when you drove him from Dol Guldur. You made me almost die time and time again and, at the last, destroy my Precious, and you said he would lose all his power. But you were wrong? I did all that for nothing?"

"Silence!" cried Gandalf. "You didn't do all that for nothing. You saved hundreds of lives, and as I said, Sauron can never again take shape, nor can he ever be as powerful as he was then..."

"Oh, but you might be wrong about that," interrupted Pippin helpfully.

"Silence!" thundered Gandalf, anything but silently. But it worked. Everybody was too scared to interrupt again. "As I was saying," went on Gandalf, "he still has one more asset left him...his Palantir. Through it, he can enslave those who own the others."

"Wow!" said Faramir. "Good thing nobody owns the others."

Gandalf glared at him. "Fool of a steward's son!" he said. "Of course people own the others. You can't destroy something like that...and nothing can remain lost forever. They're like the ring...they have to be found, sooner or later. And they have been."

The proper term for it is "Cracks of Doom", plural, and it should also be capitalized.

"Of course not," said Gandalf. "They belong in a museum, not a volcano."

"Why couldn't we put my Precious in a museum, then?" whined Frodo. Needless to say, he was not in a good mood. He got like this every Throwing the Ring Into the Fire Day.

"You know why not," roared Gandalf. "Now, for pity's sake be quiet for two minutes!"

Everybody was quiet, and Gandalf went on. "The chief danger is that the other Palantirs belong to six of the most influential people in Middle Earth...excepting myself."

"Who?" asked Gamling.

Gandalf began chanting like a wizard. Which made sense, as he was a wizard. "Lady Galadriel, Lord Elrond, Thranduil Elven King, King Elessar of Gondor, King Eomer of Rohan, and Denethor, former Steward of Gondor."

"Wait a minute," said Faramir. "Dad's dead."

"Nonsense," said Gandalf. "He is very much alive."

"How did he survive?" asked Faramir.

"It's very simple," said Gandalf. "Everybody knows there's a fish pond at the bottom of the white tower. Denethor fell in when he jumped, and it conveniently put out the fire, though he did not escape without injuries. By the time he got out of the hospital, Aragorn had already proclaimed himself king, so he ran away. Taking the Palantir with him, of course."

"Well," said Merry, "if Faramir didn't even know he was still alive, he can't be very influential, at least."

"That's nice," said Pippin.

Gandalf ignored them. "They cannot remain with their owners...they are snares, traps...instruments of bondage. They are enslaving them. They must be stolen."

The rest of the party maintained an impressed and impressive silence.

"There are seven Palantirs," went on Gandalf, after a very boring moment had passed, "and there are seven left of the fellowship, not counting Aragorn who no longer...um...counts. That means that each person can steal a different Palantir."

"Wait a minute," said Gimli, "didn't you already steal Aragorn's?"

"Of course not," said Gandalf. "It would have broken his mind. Besides, then there would have been only six Palantirs, and someone would have to go without. I didn't want to be unfair to the rest of you."

"Won't it break his mind if someone steals it from him?" asked Sam.

"Of course not. It's entirely different. If I had taken it from him by force, while he was looking, it would have broken his mind. But stealing it, when he's not looking, so he'll just think it's lost...well, that will upset him, but I don't think it will send him crazy. Unless he's crazy already, which is quite possible, but off track. The point is, who's with me?"

"I am!" said Gimli and Pippin.

"Well...I guess so," said Merry and Sam.

"You have my bow," said Legolas, after a moment's reflection.

Frodo said nothing. Gandalf kicked him.

"Ouch!" said Frodo. "No! I don't want to go save the day again! I want to go sail away to Valinor so I don't have to have any problems anymore. You promised me we were going to sail into Valinor with Lady Galadriel!"

"Well," said Gandalf, "it's not my fault we aren't going to now. Galadriel's been stalling for some time. I imagine she wants to stay here so she can spend all her time looking in her Palantir. That's the point of this mission...freeing people from their Palantirs so we can do what we want to do."

"Oh..." said Frodo. "That doesn't sound too bad. I'm with you!"

"Good!" said Gandalf. "You would have been eventually anyways. Now, we shall be called the Fellowship of the Palantirs."

"But if we spread out to go steal them, we won't be a fellowship anymore," said Merry.

"Oh," said Gandalf. "That's true. Very well, we shall be called the Agents of the Palantirs. How's that?"

"Better..." said Merry doubtfully.

"I think it sounds cheesy," said Legolas.

"Well then, you think of a better one!" said Gandalf in exasperation.

Nobody said anything.

"All right then," said Gandalf. "Good-night!"


	2. Chapter 2: The Mirror of Galadriel

**The Mirror of Galadriel**

Gimli hummed nervously as he packed his bag. He was looking forward to seeing Lady Galadriel again, but stealing from her? Gimli shook his head. What was the world coming to?

He packed one of the three hairs she had given him and closed the bag, after giving the book on his nightstand a hesitant glance. He decided it was best not to pack it...he would want to read it on the way.

There was a knock on the door and Celeborn entered in answer to his gruff 'who is it?'

"Are you ready?" asked Celeborn stiffly.

Celeborn and Gimli had never cared for each other. Gimli had not liked Celeborn since he had found out he was Galadriel's husband, and not her father. Celeborn had not liked Gimli ever since he had heard that a dwarf had entered his, or more accurately, his wife's realm. But for now, in light of their common cause, they decided to put aside their differences, or at least not to vocalize them.

"Yes," said Gimli, even stiffer than Lord Celeborn. He picked up his bag and his book, 'Flattering Galadriel for Dummies'.

Celeborn gave the volume an approving glance. He evidently thought it a fitting choice of literature.

Twenty minutes later, they were floating down the river. Or up it. Gimli knew nothing about boats. But that was fine with him. That just meant he didn't have to row and could be as lazy as he wanted.

He opened his book to the place he had left off the night before. "Be sure to tell her that time may have changed you, but not so the Lady of Lothlorien," he read aloud.

Celeborn rolled his eyes.

At last the boat pulled to shore in Lothlorien. Haldir greeted them, and led them into the presence of Galadriel. Gimli was only mildly surprised when Celeborn bowed low before her, as he did himself.

"Welcome," said Galadriel, "Gimli son of Gloin." She ignored her husband. In fact, when it came to that, she did not seem overjoyed to see Gimli. She rather looked like she wished she were somewhere else.

"My Lady," said Gimli. "Time may have changed me, but not so the Lady of Lothlorien!"

Celeborn choked. A smile appeared around the corners of Galadriel's lips.

Gimli was encouraged, but a moment later, the smile dissipated, and Galadriel turned to Haldir.

"Lead them to their quarters," she said. "I have much to do." She turned and floated away.

Gimli was put out. This was going to be harder than he had thought. If flattery wasn't going to work...what would? Everybody knew it was Galadriel's only weakness. Well, her only weakness except for her Palantir.

Which reminded Gimli of the advise Gandalf had given them: "The Palantirs will be well hidden. Look where your target spends most of his time. That is where you will find it."

I believe this should be "advice" rather than "advise" - if I'm remembering correctly, "advice" is the noun (e.g. "she gave him some advice"), and "advise" is the action (e.g. "she wanted to advise him").

Haldir led him to his own personal tree house, and Gimli quickly unpacked his things. He looked longingly at his book, but turned away. It was time to start spy work.

* * *

Gimli dashed from tree trunk to tree trunk, keeping out of the light as much as possible. He had been looking for half an hour, but had still seen nothing of Galadriel.

Suddenly, as he crept along, looking very suspicious, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He jumped in fright, and turned to see Haldir looking at him.

"You breathe so loud I could shoot you in the dark," said Haldir. "What are you doing, to make you jump so high at my touch?"

Gimli's heart slowed its pounding by a fraction of a second in between thumps. "I was looking for Lady Galadriel," he said.

Haldir looked at him oddly. "You could have asked," he said. "Lady Galadriel is in her garden at the moment."

"Oh," said Gimli. "Thank you." He turned to go, then turned back. "Is she often in her garden?" he asked.

"She spends much of her time there, lately," said Haldir.

"Thank you," said Gimli again. "Which way is her garden?"

"Left," said Haldir. "If you get lost, just ask anyone."

Gimli accordingly turned left. At last, he found himself on a small path, leading downwards into a little garden. Galadriel was sitting by a pedestal, gazing into a basin that sat on top of it. Gimli ducked behind a tree trunk to watch.

Galadriel sat for some time. Her hand hovered over the basin, and every now and again, she would dip her finger into the water it held. Suddenly, she laughed. Gimli started at the laugh. It could not have been more unexpected. No one had made a joke, or said anything. In fact, Galadriel was the only other creature in sight. He did not know what she could be laughing at. The laugh died as suddenly as it had sounded, and once more everything was silent.

A moment later, a Haldir strode past Gimli's hiding place and into the garden. Galadriel's finger flew into the basin and moved quickly about in the water as he came closer. As Haldir bowed low before her, she looked up, annoyance in her eyes. "What is it?" she snapped.

"I'm sorry, my Lady," said Haldir, "I thought the dwarf was with you."

Gimli hated how all these elves insisted on calling him the dwarf instead of Gimli. It did not occur to him that he usually called them by the title 'the elf'.

"He's not here," said Galadriel. "I haven't seen him since he arrived."

"Pardon me...he asked me earlier where he could find you."

"Well, I'll tell you if I see him," replied Galadriel, obviously irritated. "Now leave me alone."

Haldir obediently left. Gimli, after a few more moments of Galadriel dipping her hand in and out of the basin, decided to leave as well. He made his way back towards the busier part of Lothlorien, where he hoped to find Celeborn.

He wandered along the path, trying to ignore the fact that all the elves he met were staring at him. More accurately, he tried to convince himself that it was a compliment. After all, he was something of a celebrity. And he was the only dwarf to set foot in Lothlorien since the Balrog awoke.

It wasn't long before he came face to face with Haldir again.

"There you are," said Haldir. "I thought you were going to talk to Lady Galadriel."

"I got distracted," said Gimli, uncomfortably.

Haldir looked at him very oddly indeed.

"I met an old friend," said Gimli.

"I did not know you had friends among our folk," said Haldir, loftily.

The prig, thought Gimli. He grit his teeth. "Well," he said, "I do."

"I was looking for you," said Haldir.

"Really? What for?"

"Lord Celeborn wanted you for something."

"Really? Where is he?"

"He's up at his house."

"Which one is that?"

"The one you met Lady Galadriel in."

Gimli turned to leave.

"Make sure you don't get distracted again," Haldir called after him.

With difficulty, Gimli restrained himself from drawing his axe and slaying that annoying elf. Instead, he went straight on, until he found the tree house he had first been led to. He climbed the stairs and found himself before Celeborn.

"There you are," said Celeborn. "I told Haldir to send you here hours ago."

"What do you want me for?" asked Gimli.

"I wanted to tell you that if you mean to start your mission tonight, you'll find Galadriel in her garden. She spends all her time there, these days."

"Thanks, I'd already discovered that."

"Oh well, I just wanted to save you some time."

"I have some questions," said Gimli.

"Oh? What?"

"Why does Lady Galadriel spend all her time looking into a bowl of water?"

"Oh, was that what she was doing? That's her mirror. It shows her stuff."

"Like a Palantir?"

Celeborn looked shocked. "Oh no, she's had the mirror for forever. She pours the water in the bowl and it shows images of the past and the future. Frodo looked in it once, she told me."

Gimli thought for a moment. "I'll have to investigate," he said. "Do you think you could draw her out of the garden long enough for me to take a look at things?"

"I can make her come out for a moment or two, at least," said Celeborn doubtfully. "It depends on how fast you can check everything out."

"I'll take as long as you can give me. If nothing else, we can do multiple tries. Give me five minutes to get there, then get her out."

"Very well," said Celeborn. "Get going."

Gimli hurried back down the steps and wove his way through the trees, back towards the little garden. At last, he once more reached the path, and hid behind a tree.

Galadriel was still sitting there, silently gazing into the depths of her 'mirror'. For some time, nothing happened. At last, Gimli saw a pair of long legs pass his hiding place and Haldir bowed before Galadriel.

"Why do you have to keep bothering me?" asked Galadriel. Her tone was rather nasty. "What is it now?"

"Lady Galadriel," said Haldir, "Lord Celeborn requests your presence."

Galadriel stood, grumbling under her breath. She looked again into the basin and laughed. Then she floated up the path, past Gimli, and out of sight, Haldir following dutifully behind her.

As soon as they were completely gone, Gimli leaped to his feet. His heart pounded as he crept down the path and up to the little table. He climbed up on a convenient step ladder and looked down into the water.

At first, all was black. Then, slowly, the water turned blue, and words appeared.

_Please enter your password._ Below these words, there was a keyboard in the water.

Gimli mind raced. 'This was not one expected to find in a bowl of water,' was his first thought. 'Duh, obviously,' was his second. And 'I have to figure out her password,' was his third.

Gimli was not an experienced hacker. In fact, he had never managed to remember his own password to his old cell phone, before he had lost it. Gimli thought very hard. What would a creepy elven lady set as her password?

'CeleyandGladdy,' typed Gimli. Then he thought better of it and typed 'GladdyandCeley.' He tapped enter.

The words _The password was incorrect_, appeared, and Gimli thought again. What would a several hundred year old, beautiful, slightly sentimental and abominably vain elven lady set as her password? He thought some more.

'IloveCeley.' he typed at last, and pushed enter. Wrong. 'Iloveme'? Wrong. 'Iambeautiful.' Wrong again. And this time a sign came up.

It read, _Maximum number of tries reached. Please wait thirty seconds or reset the device. Please note resetting the device will return the device to a similar state to when the device was bought._

Gimli waited thirty seconds with difficulty. Stupid mirror, he thought.

Finally, the time was up, and he tapped _retry_.

The sign left, and the water once more bore the words _Please enter your password._

Gimli thought very hard. He thought about everything true he had ever heard about Galadriel. He thought about everything untrue. She was beautiful. She was vain. She was insane (in Gimli's mind, this fell under the untrue catagory). Legolas had once told him she loved Sherlock. Pippin said...

Wait a minute. Rewind. Gimli thought again. By the time he finished thinking, he was shaking with excitement.

He leaned over the mirror and typed 'Iamsherlocked'.

He pushed enter.

The water turned black.

Oh great, thought Gimli. I've reset the device.

And then the water turned white. And then a webpage appeared.

So instead of jumping up and down and screaming, Gimli looked at the webpage.

It was Galadriel's blog. Gimli could tell, because at the top of the webpage it said _Galadriel's- Tipsatblogyourlife. net_. Gimli started reading the article. Immediately, he was electrified.

_Hypnosis: The Key to Control_

_Hypnosis is the most important power a lady can have. This is what I told my grand-daughter, Arwen, when she was just 400 years old. Today, Arwen is now one of the most influential young elf-women of her time. She had her father under her thumb. She has her husband under her thumb. She has her husband's kingdom, Gondor, under her thumb. Yesterday, I received an e-mail from Arwen. In it, she told me how that piece of advice I gave her when she was 400 years old has shaped her entire life. She told me that if I had never told her of the importance of hypnosis, she would have grown up, tyrannised by her father. She would not have a husband today. And she would definitely not command everyone in an entire realm. She told me that because of my advice, she is happy. And she said thank you._

Gimli had not noticed that the shock and horror of what he was seeing was pulling him closer and closer to the webpage. Suddenly, his face was immersed in cold water, as he lowered it into the basin. He pulled it out, spluttering and dripping. When he looked back down at the mirror, it was showing a different page.

This page had the alien word_ Eyebook_, at the top. Gimli's eyes traveled down the page and he began to read.

_Farmer Maggot wants your help planting carrots in Farmville._

_Faramir posted on Boromir's wall:_ Don't come to my wedding...you'll spoil everything!

_Aragorn, Grima, and 8 others like this._

_Aragorn commented on this:_ Nor mine either!

_Eomer commented on this:_ Lol...was Boromir really that bad? Come on Boromir...defend yourself!

_Boromir commented on this:_ You shouldn't have said that, little brother...you know how I love dares!

_Galadriel posted 1 new pictures. (Followed by a picture of Galadriel turning into a green algae monster.)_

_Sauron, Thranduil, and 6 others liked this._

_Denethor commented on this;_ Let it go! Let it go! :)

_Eowyn commented on this:_ Too cute!

Gimli screamed and stepped backwards. Unfortunately, he forgot that he was standing on a step ladder. He stepped off of the step ladder into mid air and lost his balance. He clutched for something to hold on to, and his hand caught the mirror. He fell backwards, pulling the mirror on top of him. Water poured over him, and a black ball fell out and hit his head.

Gimli sat up and groaned. He looked down at the ball. Well, at least he had found the Palantir. He began to pull himself to his feet, when he heard voices. They were coming closer.

TBC


End file.
